


To Kill a Raven

by Caityjan



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blaise Zabini - Freeform, Draco Malfoy - Freeform, Harry Potter - Freeform, Lucius Malfoy - Freeform, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Narcissa Black Malfoy is a Good Parent, Pansy Parkinson - Freeform, Powerful Harry, Powerful Hermione, Slytherin Hermione, Smart Harry Potter, Weasley Family Bashing (Harry Potter), and i love her, grey hermione, hermione granger - Freeform, ron weasley - Freeform, they’re all 11 so relationships are for later, victor krum - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:41:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caityjan/pseuds/Caityjan
Summary: Hermione is rescued from the streets by Narcissa, and one over powered case of accidental magic later, Hermione becomes Draco’s twin sister, Hermione Diana Malfoy, and no one remembers anything different.Betrayal, heartbreak, and bad decisions made by men who should’ve died a long time ago, leads Hermione on her own mission to take down everyone who ruined her life.Hermione, being Hermione, is a lot better at vengeful missions than anyone bargained for.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger/Pansy Parkinson, Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Comments: 5
Kudos: 76





	To Kill a Raven

Prologue

A baby's cry pierced the still night air, and along with it the heart of a mother walking in the street.

Narcissa Malfoy had been walking to a safe apparating point when she heard the cry of a child in need, and being the new mother she was, her maternal instincts drove her to check up on the babe. She quickly followed the child's cries, which were thankfully sounding less painful now, and her keen eyes soon made out the form of a child on a doorstep. The motion-sensing lights which give away the muggle nature of the area flicked on as she approached, startling her and illuminating the orphanage sign next to the front door. Narcissa sighed and picked up the babe to soothe it regardless. It was, of course, this act of kindness that sent the child's magic in search of her own, trying to latch onto any sense of safety. The rush of magic weakened her knees and stole the breath out of her chest, coursed its way through her and Narcissa knew that such power could only come from a pureblood child. She readjusted the bundle of a child and in doing so, a letter to the orphanage fell out of the folds in the blanket. Narcissa picked it up and made to read it, it might hold some clues as to the child's parentage after all. She felt her body droop in disappointment, the babe was no more than a mudblood, abandoned by her seemingly religious parent who believed her the Antichrist, if their warning to the orphanage was anything to go by. However, Narcissa was not one to let such magical talent go to waste; she would beg and plead and bargain with her husband all night long if it was required to allow the child to live as their own and masquerade as a pureblood.

From the letter, she was able to gather that the child was to be named Hermione Jane, and she was six months old. Narcissa turned up her nose as such a common muggle middle name but approved of the Greek and Shakespearean origins of the first name. The child was only a month younger than her own son and her dislike of muggles increased, children were a treasure amongst wizards. If she was able to infiltrate Hermione into their family, Narcissa thought, it would also provide the much needed genetic variation for the survival of the Malfoy house.

She wasn't blind to the effects inbreeding was having on the wizarding community; infertility and insanity causing lines to die out or produce only an heir, as well as the effects on their magical prowess. Magic was magic: a child either had or it didn't, but the inbreeding was negatively affecting the magical stamina and core size of wizards as the generations progressed. Narcissa sighed once more, a developing habit she mentally berated herself for, and gathered the meagre possessions of the child and prepared to aparate home; she had a husband to convince and a child of her own to look after, and she had already spent too long at Andromeda's house cooing over her sister’s toddler. With a twist of her foot and a sharp crack, Narcissa found herself back in her home.

* * *

She found her husband exactly where she left him, in his office pouring over finances and wizengamot legislations. Lucius Malfoy was a prominent member of the Wizengamot; he played the role of unspoken leader of the dark political ring. This, of course, brought great importance and honour to their family, and so she didn’t mind the long hours he spent away from her and their child. Now, all she had to do was convince him that they should take in the dirty mudblood child she found in the street whilst defying his wishes and visiting her disgraced sister. Narcissa took another breath as she shuffled and readjusted the baby in her arms.

It had been an hour since she had arrived home from her sister’s, time which she spent cleaning the child, dressing her, and visiting her son. Draco was only a month older than Hermione, but thankfully the size difference and her preplanned excuse for the child aligned well; Narcissa gave birth to twins, but Hermione had been sickly and the healers weren’t sure that she would survive, so they had kept her unannounced until she was healthy, or dead. Narcissa knew that waiting to inform her husband would decrease how receptive to the idea he was, so she braced herself and opened the large, imposing door to her husband's office.

“Narcissa, my love, what’s the matter?” Lucius greeted her warmly before noticing the baby she carried in her arms and growing concerned, “my love, why do you have a child with you? Did one of our allies leave it orphaned?”

Narcissa hesitated, just enough to cause Lucius unease, before replying “no, dearest, all of our allies are safe and this child is none of theirs” Lucius made to interrupt but Narcissa stopped him with a raise of her hand, as was the power of a lady.  
“I found this child abandoned to a muggle orphanage, after visiting my sister, and after feeling her powerful magic I knew she shouldn’t be left with muggles” she forged on, speaking faster so Lucius couldn’t interrupt, her determination was the only thing that gave her the confidence to speak over her husband  
“she’s 6 months old, and she has no one, my dear. The letter I found her with indicated she already had performed accidental magic and those muggles gave her up because they thought she was evil! We can pretend that I had twins and she was sickly, and you have plenty of connections in the ministry who owe you favours that can forge her a magical birth certificate. I know you don’t approve of her lineage, but you and I both know I can’t have more children as we want. She’s too powerful to avoid abuse in the muggle world, especially an orphanage” her breath gave out on her and Lucius seized the opportunity

“Narcissa, my love, I know you want another child but this simply isn't the way to do it! Regardless of the child's magical prowess, it's still a mudblood and we cannot defile our bloodline like this. My dear, you must remember your mother instincts are still running high, you had Draco not long ago. We will send the child to a more high-class orphanage if that will satisfy you, but I will not have it in our house" he argued calmly.

Narcissa opened her mouth to continue arguing her points, and the argument went back and forth for quite some time; they were both very stubborn people. While Lucius would never admit it, he would have allowed this deception if the child was of purer blood.

Unfortunately, because both adults were focused on each other, neither noticed poor Hermione, who was getting more and more upset at the arguing. Her magic began to stir, and while Hermione might only be 6th months old, her magic knew that Narcissa was losing the argument and what that would mean for her survival. Hermione's magic reacted, and violently. It whipped up a storm around both adults and wormed its way into both of their heads. The room began to shake from the invisible tendrils of magic and Hermione began to scream from the sheer amount of magic coursing through her little body. Her magic picked up speed and intensity and began to spin around the adults with such power that it was almost tangible. Ornaments began to rattle on their shelves and some fell and shattered on the floor, those with a more questionable origin began to hum from the borderline dark magic she was producing. Vaguely Narcissa registered the house elves trying to get into the room, but Hermione’s magic had erected a barrier around the room that was similar to a ward. Almost as if it was an act of finality, the large window overseeing the grounds that sat on the back wall of the office, behind the desk, shattered. While no one would note the difference, Hermione magic had taken the liberty of making sure she would look like a Malfoy as she grew. Hermione's magic settled and not a moment too soon, as she passed out due to magical exhaustion. The room, bar the window, returned to its original state as the magic subsided and both adults shook their heads vigorously to clear the fog that had settled there.

And so both adults forgot that Hermione was anything other than the cover story Narcissa prepared.

* * *

Years later, Hermione would learn all about wild magic; as it was wild magic, combined with Hermione's admittedly powerful magic, that caused the extraordinary event to occur early January 1981, that changed the course of history.

But that doesn't matter for right now, because the only people who knew about the event had promptly forgotten it had happened.

* * *

The Malfoys broke the news of Hermione Diana Malfoy on January 11th. After, there was a flurry of high society tea parties held, photos of the family taken, news articles run on the miracle that was twins, and many, many well-wishers showing up unannounced at the Malfoy residence over the next couple of months. They knew this was going to happen, of course, twins were very rare among purebloods, but that didn’t make the experience any less irritating. Despite it all, Narssica noted that the stress had brought her and Lucius closer than they had been in the entire time they'd known each other.

The twins, as that was what they were now, remained happily oblivious to their parents' stress and were currently rolling around and drooling on their toys, as babies do. Remarkably and to the great surprise of both parents, Draco was perfectly accomodating to Hermione when she was finally brought home from St Mungo’s, and had yet to squabble or fight as you would expect from siblings.

As they continued to approach their first birthday, the subtle differences between them became clear to only their parents. While they were both undeniably blond; Draco’s blond was the platinum kind that was destined to stay blindingly pale and pin-straight, while Hermione’s blonde was the muted kind in which you couldn’t tell if it would stay blonde or turn brown, and would undeniably grow curly, although significantly tamer to what one might expect. It was clear Hermione’s hair would take after her mother’s lineage, a fact which delighted Narcissa and slightly disappointed Lucius.

Their first birthday came and went with little to note. It was a gala, as was a trend in high wizards games society, presents were opened and cake was eaten, and the twins were in bed with a house elf guard by 7 pm while the adults would continue to socialise into the small hours of the morning.

* * *

When the twins were two years old, they displayed their first cases of accidental magic. Generally, children use accidental magic to get what they want, but the twins accidental magic was to help each other. Hermione’s magic came first, immobilising a bird that Draco had wanted to pat but had kept flying away. The entire experience was traumatising for her parents, who had stumbled upon their children petting a dead bird. Narcissa’s initial reaction was to comfort her children despite their calm state, and Lucius’ had been to scold Hermione about using magic on living things. Thankfully they had come to a compromise and had sat the children down and explained that they shouldn’t use their magic on animals because it can end badly, without ever letting the children know what Hermione had accidentally done.

Thankfully neither child realised the bird was dead, so the parents had moved past it without much thought. Draco’s accidental magic had been to fix a picture book that Hermione had been fond of but had accidentally ripped. Their parents had been far more enthusiastic over fixing a book than they had been about killing a bird, and had thrown a party to celebrate the twins on their accidental magic. The guests in attendance never learnt what Hermione’s magic case was, as her parents had skilfully dodged the question each time it had come up.

* * *

When the twins were four years old, they both started basic learning; reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. They both took to it like a moth to a flame, to the great pleasure of their parents. By this point, the twins had done everything together and were as thick as thieves, and were delighted to do more things together. However, it also brought out the beginnings of the twins’ fierce competitiveness, which their parents were less pleased about.

They had made it a competition between them to see who could write their names the fastest or who could recall the most numbers or who could spell the most words. This, of course, meant that their studies progressed very quickly, and they were introduced to the concept of multiplication shortly before their 5th birthday. They would not fully understand multiplication even as a concept, let alone do it, until they were six, which led to a large amount of frustration. Their parents had never expected them to be able to do multiplication at four years old, but Lucius was curious at how his children would react to the challenge. Draco’s response was to whine and complain about not understanding. Hermione’s response was to put it aside and busy herself learning things she did understand.

And such was the fundamental difference between them.

* * *

When the twins were five, Hermione overheard her parents discussing a man called Sirius Black. At the age of five Hermione would not understand the significance of what she overheard and she wouldn’t remember the conversation until many years later, but the contents of the conversations summed up to this:

When James and Lily Potter died on Halloween 1981, there were three men alive who knew the identity of the secret keeper; Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and one Albus Dumbledore. Shortly after Halloween, Sirius and Pettigrew had their infamous showdown about betrayal and who the secret keeper was, and Sirius Black was carted off to Azkaban without a trial. Albus Dumbledore sat in his office sipping tea.

A year later, Dumbledore made a proposition to a desperate man in a cold cell: Albus would ask that Sirius Black receive a trial with veritaserum if Sirius Black would swear to defer to Dumbledore when it came to all things Harry Potter related. Sirius refused to give up his rights as godparent to little Harry, and so he stayed in his cell. Albus came to visit again, a year later, and Sirius Black once again refused. However, when a fourth year rolled around, Sirius relented on the condition that Albus would make sure Harry was safe and happy.

Soon, everyone in Wizarding Britain, and half the people on the continent, knew this story, as it had come out in the paper that morning.

Narcissa and Lucius were discussing this because Sirius Black, Lord of house Black, had reinstated his cousin and Narcissa’s sister, Andromeda Tonks, back into the family. Lucius had tried to argue that Narcissa shouldn’t reform a relationship with house Black and her sister, while Narcissa argued back that her children were likely heirs to house Black and shouldn’t be kept away from the house.

This was how Sirius Black became Hermione’s favourite uncle.

* * *

When the twins were seven, they received their most treasured birthday gifts of all from their parents. It was tradition to give pureblood children minor family heirlooms on their 7th birthday, because of the power the number 7 held in magic.

Hermione on her 7th birthday received a very large book of what was considered need-to-know spells and potions in the 19th century. Of course, a lot of the material in the book was frowned upon, if not illegal in the current age, and not material that Hermione would understand at the ripe age of seven.

Draco, on the other hand, had taken to more practical uses of his time than reading in the slightly creepy Malfoy library. Due to this, Draco had received a pretty jasper necklace for his 7th birthday. As well as the protective and healing properties that jasper inherently carried, the crystal had been charmed to heat up whenever the wearer was in likely mortal peril. Draco had also learnt that the necklace gave the wearer a stinging hex if the wearer was putting themselves in danger through their own stupid choices, after trying a new upside-down move on his new broom. The move itself wasn’t dangerous, but Draco was seven.

It was also this year that Hermione finally made a friend through the many play dates and tea parties that she attended with her mother. Pansy Parkinson was a fiery spirited girl her age, and they never had anything in common in the past. This year, Pansy had decided she liked unicorns and similar magical animals, and Hermione knew a lot about a lot of things, so they became friends over teaching each other things about various magical creatures, and they discovered many other common interests as they kept talking.

Pansy had introduced Hermione to some of her other friends, Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis. Hermione thought Daphne was an airhead with no valuable thoughts, and while Tracy was very nice, she was a halfblood. Despite this, she got on with the two girls well enough but she wasn’t as close to them as she was with Pansy.

Hermione was very glad to have made some friends, apart from her brother. Draco was her best friend and she was his, but Draco had been friends with many other boys since they were four and was decidedly popular.

* * *

When the twins were nine, they began studying basic magic. It was illegal for them to perform the magic of course, but learning the theory and potion making was not. Draco enjoyed learning about magic a lot more than he did about grammar and math. Hermione had made it her mission to be better than Draco in the theory side of magic, and their competitive nature flared to life once again.

They spent hours over the next few years about the theory behind all the first and some of the second year curriculum. Narcissa had encouraged them both equally and reassured them that she loved them both equally no matter who had read the most books that week. Lucius offered them prizes for whoever impressed their tutor the most that week. This about sums up how Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy showed their love to their children, but never let it be said that they did not fiercely love their children.

Draco was satisfied with learning enough to get O marks on all his assignments, while Hermione was forever plagued with the question “why?”. For her, it wasn’t enough to simply understand that casting “wingardium leviosa” made something levitate, she wanted to know at its basic level, how magic worked. Unfortunately for Hermione, this was the type of “why” that no one really had an answer to. Those who weren’t satisfied with the current grasp on how magic worked either became unspeakables who inevitably spent their life trying to work through the ranks in order to study the question, or they were people like Albus Dumbledore, who found it thoroughly amusing that nobody knew and spent their free time philosophising with incomplete understanding.

Hermione was the exact type of stubborn and ambitious that meant she decided at the age of nine that she would make huge magical discoveries and be known as the best when she grew up.

* * *

When the twins were eleven, they received their Hogwarts letters.

Hermione and Draco had torn around the entire house looking for their parents, completely ignoring 6 years of etiquette lessons in doing so. They had found their parents awake and dressed, already eating breakfast despite the early hour, alongside their uncles, Severus and Sirius. Hermione had always found it the most curious thing, how her two uncles snipped and argued with each other, although they were admittedly better than when she was younger when several impromptu duels had broken out. Currently, Uncle Severus was insinuating that Uncle Sirius smelt like wet dog, which Hermione assumed was an inside joke, or one for those things her parents always said she would understand when she was older. Despite his apparent wet dog smell, Hermione tackled her favourite uncle before clambering into the seat next to him and shoved her Hogwarts letter so close to his face that he got dizzy trying to read it.

“Look uncle! I got my letter, that means we’re going to Diagon Alley today right? Mother promised we’d go the same day we got our letters to get all our school supplies, and I simply must get a new wardrobe for school. I can’t very well go around Hogwarts with the robes I’ve got. I’ll also need all these books, but I must get some other ones so I’m not behind in potions and - oh Uncle Severus” she turned towards her other Uncle, who had been entertaining Draco’s much calmer questions “you’re the potions professor, what other books do you think I’ll need for my classes, I’ve got to keep up you know, and how much parchment will I need, how many notes will I be taking and how long are the essays and-“ her rant was cut short by a slice of toast that had been shoved in her mouth, courtesy of her Uncle Sirius. Her mother looked amused, Uncle Severus looked exasperated, and her father merely sighed. Lucius Malfoy sighed a lot when it came to Hermione. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her, he really did, it was just that she always had so many damn questions.

“Hermione, darling, why don’t you and Draco leave your letters with us and go get dressed and eat, and then we can go to Diagon Alley,” Narcissa said. Hermione climbed off the tall barstool and with a mouth full of toast, she went to get dressed for the day.

An hour and a half later found the Malfoy family and her honorary uncles stepping out of the floo in the leaky cauldron. Hermione took charge of their little party and lead the group to Gringotts, in order for her father to withdraw money for the day's spending. The Malfoys were of course, very rich, but not the richest family by far. Her uncle Sirius, as Lord Black was currently the richest man in wizarding Britain, with a net value of 12 billion galleons. The Malfoys had roughly a quarter of that, 3 billion galleons, making them the third wealthiest family in the country. Second place went to the potter family, with about 5 billion, but as she understood it the potter family wouldn’t be a competition until Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived came into his inheritance at the age of 17.

The withdrawal of money went smoothly, and her father gave her and Draco 30 galleons each for personal spending. Hermione then led the group on to the next location, Flourish and Blotts. There, Hermione and Draco picked up their school books, and Hermione picked up a book on unicorn care for Pansy’s upcoming birthday, as well as two books, one on warding theory and another on defence against the dark arts, for light reading. The three extra books Hermione bought came to 8 galleons, the warding book was particularly expensive at four galleons. Draco had bought a book on seeker tips and drills, to which Hermione reminded him that first years weren’t even allowed a broom, let alone play quidditch.

The group promptly left the book shop and made their way over to Ollivander’s to purchase wands. At this point, both her Uncles left their group to attend to their own shopping, and wished the twins luck on their wands. The very idea that she might need luck in order to get a wand terrified Hermione, was she supposed to have studied for this? Was there going to be a test that determined her wand? Hermione fretted about all the unnecessary things she didn’t do, all the way up to the point where Mr Olivander handed her a wand to try. Frightened, and because she hadn’t been listening to Mr Ollivander’s instructions, Hermione stood absolutely still while the wand was shoved into her hand. One moment passed, and then another, before Mr Olivander spoke.  
“Well, go one then! Give it a wave” he said, sounding rather frustrated and Hermione did as she was told. Before she had even gotten halfway through the arc of her movement, the wand was snatched from her grip, rather rudely too, she thought, and the eccentric wandmaker was muttering shuffling in the back of his shop. Paying attention this time allowed Hermione to learn that the wand she would try this time was oak with a unicorn hair core and was 11 ¼ inches. She only got partway through waving that one, before it too got snatched from her hands.

The wand finding process continued like this, with some wands getting snatched out of her hands before anything happened, some making all the poor flower vases shatter, and some making her feel slightly warm and tingly. What she was supposed to be looking for, if warm and tingly wasn’t it, Hermione didn’t know, nor did she have to think on it because Mr Ollivander’s was back with yet another wand. This one was vine, dragon heartstring core (an idea that repulsed her), and was 10 ¼ inches. Hermione sighed before taking the wand and giving it a half-hearted wave, and she suddenly knew what she was looking for. A dozen or so small birds materialised at the end of her wand and twittered around the shop and sang the most beautiful song. Mr Ollivander was ecstatic.

“Oh well done Ms Malfoy! Well done indeed. And not a moment too soon, I’d almost run out of things for you to shatter” he said with much glee. Hermione gasped,

“Oh my, I’m so sorry about your shop!” For it was indeed something for Hermione to be sorry about. Various sheets of paper lay strewn across the floor and a fine layer of pulverised marble coated every surface. Every flower vase that had decorated the shop was in ruins, and not even the flowers themselves were safe from Hermione’s destruction. The shop, for lack of a better word, was a mess. Not that Mr Ollivander seemed to mind. He pulled out what Hermione assumed to be his own wand, though how he didn’t lose it amongst the others was a mystery to her, and ten seconds later the room looked like Hermione had never stepped foot inside.

“See, Ms Malfoy? Not a problem in the slightest, and certainly not the worst ruin this shop has seen. Why, not too long ago I had a young man in here who nearly took apart the foundations!” Mr Ollivander twittered. Hermione handed over the 7 galleons for the wand and, very eager to leave the shop, asked her mother if she could take Hermione to the Menagerie for a pet.

* * *

An hour later saw Hermione and her mother meeting up with the rest of their party at Fortesques with her beautiful ginger kneazle kitten she had called Crookshanks. Her cat was beautiful and regal looking with his elegant face and stunning ginger colour. As Crookshanks grew, he would develop additional white patches in his fur, and the signature plume of fur around the neck associated with kneazles would grow in. At the moment, Crookshanks looked like any other kitten. He had a calm disposition, which was one of the reasons her mother allowed her to get him.

Draco’s wand process apparently took far less time than hers, as he had time to buy a dark grey Eagle Owl he had named Ares. Hermione thought it was an ugly looking thing, the long feathers protruding out of its forehead made it look perpetually angry and it’s horrible orange eyes stared straight into Hermione’s soul. Hermione could say without a doubt that her lovely brother’s awful bird was out for her blood.

Not that she herself could really judge. Crookshanks was straining against his carrier with all of his might in the direction of a small redhead boy, hissing and growling something chronic. Hermione was deeply concerned about her choice of familiar for all of 2 seconds before the boy disappeared from the parties line of sight, completely oblivious to the demon cat Hermione was restraining, and Crookshanks returned to his calm and lethargic state.

“Odd” Hermione said, “why would he act like that and then just stop? like nothing had happened? ”

“Hermione, you’re developing a bad habit of not listening” chastised her mother “if you had been listening to the store owner, you would know that kneazles can sense suspicious people and often react violently to them”

“But the boy with the red hair looked like a Weasley and they’re supposed to be the light family or something, right? Why would they be untrustworthy?” She said, baffled.

Her mother just sighed, “it really doesn’t matter, dear. You two need to be going to Madame Malkins now, your father and I have a meeting with the goblins, so head over to Gringotts when you’re done, alright?”

The twins split from the rest of the group, her uncles taking their current stuff back to Malfoy manor to leave their arms free for clothes, but Hermione couldn’t shake her burning curiosity about the mysterious Weasley child, and what could possibly make him untrustworthy.

All thoughts of ginger cats and ginger children were banished from her mind when she entered the robe shop. Rows and rows of every type of robe for every type of occasion filled the magically expanded store. In the centre of the room, were 3 separate platforms for fittings, and alongside them, 3 trolleys stacked with pins and tape measures and scissors and more sewing supplies than Hermione thought any person should need. However, Madame Malkins was the primary wizarding outfitter in Diagon Alley, and most probably did need the outlandish amount of supplies.

As soon as they stepped inside the store, the twins had three different store attendants swooping upon them to cater to their shopping needs. They were Malfoys, after all. Hermione made quick work of ordering a new wardrobe of casual robes in the current fashionable style, in the colours grey, forest green, and burgundy. Then she stepped onto the raised platform to be fitted for her school uniform, and the measurements would be translated to her new wardrobe as well. As soon as the school uniform was pulled over her head, a small scraggly looking boy entered the shop. He was so small in stature he looked about 9 to Hermione, with incredibly ill-fitting clothes and the messiest mop of hair Hermione had ever seen, did he not care about his appearance at all? Evidently, the boy was at least 11, as he ordered the uniform. Hermione and Draco shared bemused expressions, although an outsider would say they looked condensing.

“Hogwarts too, then?” Draco called out to the boy, who looked quite frightened at the idea of being talked to, “where are your parents? Ours are of at some boring meeting with the goblins”

“Um, my parents are dead, so I’m here with one of the school teachers,” the boy said.

“Well, that certainly explains a lot,” Hermione said, giving the boy an obvious once over. “ They were our kind, though, weren’t they?”

“They were magic, yes, but would it matter if they weren’t?” The boy asked in a cool tone.

Hermione sniffed. “The other type shouldn’t be let into Hogwarts, in my opinion. Why, they’ve barely enough magic to brew potions, let alone do actual magic.”

Before the boy could bite back a no doubt low brow insult, Draco pointed out the ginormous man in the window, who was waving excitedly at Harry and pointing at the melting ice cream in his hand. “My, who is that funny-looking man! Is he with you? I wouldn’t be caught dead with him,” Draco laughed.

“Oh, don’t be cruel, it’s not his fault he got the dirty groundskeeper as a guide” Hermione chastised her brother, she was feeling rather bad for the boy now. Draco merely shrugged.

“What house do you suspect you’ll be in? My family’s been in Slytherin forever, although there have been a few Ravenclaws. I suppose either would be fine, but could you imagine being a Hufflepuff? I think I’d die of shame!” Draco said.

Hermione sighed, “don’t be mean, brother, just because he looks like a Hufflepuff, doesn’t mean he is. And besides, Hufflepuff is probably better still than Gryffindor.”

“Both of my parents were Gryffindor,” the boy said, before turning to the attendant, who had just proclaimed his fitting as done, “I’ll take 3 sets of robes, and a winter cloak, please.” The boy handed over his galleons, collected his new robes, and left the store without even looking back at the twins once.

* * *

Hermione and Draco found their Uncles waiting for them in the seating area of Gringotts, arguing once again about something petty. Thankfully the argument settled once the twins had made themselves known, and both adults promptly stood up and ushered them out before they had even made five steps into Gringotts.

Hermione made a very indignant and unladylike noise, much to Draco’s amusement. The twins were herded to the nearest floo gate like cattle, and now it was Draco’s turn to be indignant. They both began to squawk their protests, acting in a very un-pureblood manner for the second time that day. Uncle Severus took pity on them, or maybe he just wanted to shut them up, and gave a very brief explanation.

“Your parents meeting with the goblins is taking a lot longer than anyone thought, apparently there was a financial emergency or something equally ridiculous, and they have asked us to take you home to the manor,” he said. Hermione was not satisfied. She pouted and slouched and folded her arms in a very angry fashion, but nonetheless she allowed herself to be directed home.

The house elves collected her new clothes and told her that the rest of her shopping was already in her room. Hermione and Draco spent the rest of the day playing exploding snap and wondering what their classes would be like. Hermione would spend the next week before school started reading her textbooks and asking her uncle every question she could before he would be subjected to teacher neutrality.

Hermione Malfoy went to bed on the 31st of August and found she could not sleep, for the morning would bring a whole new world to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was intended to be a short prologue, maybe 2k words. It ended up being almost 3 times that. The plot doesn’t really start until Hermione gets to Hogwarts, this was more a character introduction than anything. I’m trying to keep her personality close to canon, just with a Malfoy flair and playing up her less nice traits. But don’t worry, Hermione might have a cruel streak a mile wide, but she’s not evil or dark.
> 
> This is my first attempt at writing fanfic, if there’s anything that I could be improving on, I’d appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
> 
> EDIT: reuploaded due to abhorrent spelling and grammar, I'm ADHD so I often miss these things and wrote this on my iPad, so no help from Grammarly. Thanks to the commenter who pointed that out!

**Author's Note:**

> This was intended to be a short prologue, maybe 2k words. It ended up being almost 3 times that. The plot doesn’t really start until Hermione gets to Hogwarts, this was more a character introduction than anything. I’m trying to keep her personality close to canon, just with a Malfoy flair and playing up her less nice traits. But don’t worry, Hermione might have a cruel streak a mile wide, but she’s not evil or dark. 
> 
> This is my first attempt at writing fanfic, if there’s anything that I could be improving on, I’d appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.


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